Carbamoylglycine derivatives of the general formula [1] are versatile building blocks in many synthetic approaches towards a wide variety of medicines and some have therapeutic properties themselves. An example of the latter is carglumic acid (N-(aminocarbonyl)-L-glutamic acid; [1], R=—CH2CH2CO2H), used for the treatment of hyperammonaemia in patients with N-acetylglutamate synthase deficiency.

A particularly attractive application of carbamoylglycine derivatives is the use in enzyme mediated synthesis of enantiomerically pure α-amino acids. For instance, Ogawa et al. (Eur. J. Biochem. 212, 685-691 (1993)) disclose the stereospecific hydrolysis of several carbamoyl-substituted amino acids by an N-carbamoyl-D-amino acid amidohydrolase from Comamonas sp. E222c.
Unfortunately, not all carbamoylglycine derivatives are equally well accessible, whereas many of those would be highly desirable as chemical building blocks. For instance, carbamoylglycine derivatives [1] wherein R is methyl substituted with a cyclic alkanone moiety, form a class of compounds that has not been described. Nevertheless, this class of compounds would be a suitable candidate for the enzyme mediated synthesis of enantiomerically pure α-amino acids as outlined above as the resulting α-amino acids can be used as building blocks for several active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Hence, there is a need for the carbamoylglycine derivatives as described above, methods for their preparation and use of these carbamoylglycine derivatives in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients.